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Fictional Book Promotion: How to Get REAL Broadcast Publicity for Your Make-Believe Book

Getting broadcast publicity and author interviews for novels and novelists can be challenging, but it can be done.

To get broadcast publicist as a novelist, you’ll have to set aside your desire to talk only about your book and “play the game” that is broadcast book publicity.
— Dan Smith, CEO, Smith Publicity
CHERRY HILL, NJ, U.S., June 7, 2016 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Talk to any book publicist, and you’ll hear the same thing: Getting broadcast publicity for novels can be challenging. The reason is simple: Good interviews are usually based on real-life topics, and fiction – by its very nature – is creation by imagination, not real life.

If getting on the air to promote your novel is important to you, however, there is a way to make it happen. It’s actually rather simple. But a word of caution: To do it, you’ll have to set aside your desire to talk about your book, and think like both a book publicist and producer. In other words, you’ll have to “play the game” that is broadcast publicity, and become a savvy self-promoter and book marketing “expert.”

3 Steps for the Publicity Hungry Novelist

1. Forget about your book. The book, alas, is not what will get you interviews. In fact, it could keep you from getting on the air if you don’t play the game.

To get interviews, you must present producers with topics or show ideas based on your experience, knowledge or credentials, or on real-life themes in your book. Remember: No one wants to interview a book; they want to interview a person. For non-fiction authors, it’s relatively easy to extract helpful information or engaging topics from a book, and use the same expertise, which enabled them to write the book to become a great talk show guest.

For novelists, however, literary creativity and an active imagination usually don’t add up to engaging interviews. But, most novelists base their stories on real-life experiences, sometimes without even knowing they did. That’s why you should think about what caused you to write on a specific subject. Then, look at your own personal history, work experiences and personal adventures.

Look at themes in your book. What is the basis or “topic” of the book? Does it involve controversial characters or interesting themes? What kind of research did you complete to accurately write the story and add depth to characters?

What you’ll find, most likely, is that there is a “topic” in your novel, whether from your own personal experiences or the story itself. Almost every work of fiction is based upon something “real.” Discover what it is. This is precisely what book marketing agencies do in book promotion campaigns.

2. Go angling. Based on what you came up with from Step 1, find an interesting angle.

Example: You wrote a novel about the adventures of a group of senior citizens who move out of a retirement center and into a private home together. Perhaps you came up with the idea after caring for your own parent. You did research for your story, and discovered that very few seniors live together like many younger people do, and there are really not many reasons why this is so.

You’ve discovered a topic: “Senior Group Living.” To jump-start your publicity campaign, you start a “movement” to launch awareness of senior group living. Now, you have something the media might find interesting. The market for this topic wouldn’t just be older people, but also Baby Boomers and anyone who cares for an older parent.

You’ve turned fiction into reality.

3. Give ‘em what they want.

Based on your idea of “senior group living,” you now need to develop a news release to get producers interested. Think about what you hear on the radio or see on TV when the host announces what will be coming after a break. Segues such as, “After the break, find out why shacking up may not be just for young people any more.” That line is designed to keep you interested, and that’s exactly what you’re trying to with producers.

Using the above example, you might try a question headline in a press release you pitch:

“Out of the Retirement Community and into Homes: Is Senior Group Living the Next Big Craze?”

Or, something controversial:

“Selling Grandma Short? The Cold, Hard Truth About Senior Citizen Living Options”

Perhaps you have a website; why not conduct a survey of seniors assessing their preferences for living options? Since the media loves statistics and surveys, you might have created an excellent angle for print exposure:

“Survey Finds That 95% of Senior Citizens Would Prefer Living in Private Homes With Other Seniors.”

After you have the headline, write a short, snappy one page release in typical “inverted pyramid” journalism style. Present the problem, give an example, and then introduce the solution or the angle of your release. Include 4 or 5 bullet points so that that each bulleted item could stand on its own as a headline. Use the last paragraph to summarize your credentials and promote your book.

In three steps, you’ve turned fiction into a viable and interesting real-life topic for broadcast interviews. If you can get the release into the right hands at shows, you’ll likely get calls for interviews, and opportunities to promote your book.

A few last tips for promoting fiction titles:

• Refer to your novel as a “book” in the press release. Some producers are turned off by novelist-guests, and even if they call and discover it’s a novel when they speak to you, you’re still in a great position to sell them on the topic anyway.
• Don’t compare yourself to well-known authors. Create your own identity.
• Develop a book marketing catch phrase for yourself. If you refer to yourself as an “expert” in something, people will begin to refer to you as that when you’re introduced. In book promotion, the bashful perish and the confident prevail!
• Learn the soft sell. Producers and hosts hate nothing more than a guest who refers to their book every other sentence. Let the interview come to you.
• Never say never. Do every interview you can, regardless of wattage or location. Talk shows will drive book sales, but it will not happen overnight.

Bella Asher
Smith Publicity
856-489-8654, ext. 306
email us here